Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-11-04

scanned the faces OF all the other
PLAYERS, and then held.his own cards
very closely to his breast, 'skinning'
each one carefully. He always in
sisted that the blind should be limited,
but not the bets, and when he was in
he put up or made good the blind, as
the case might be. He indicated the
number of cards he desired to draw
by his fingers--one, two, three or
more fingers went up. He kept count
Of the bets with unfailing accuracy,
put in his money, and when the call
was made simply spread his hand
upon the table, raking in the pot
silently if it was the best, and saying
nothing if he lost"
Neither winning nor losing affected
his serenity, but it was noticeable
that his losings were rare. He was
satisfied to win or lose reasonable
amounts, but was hard to drive out il
he deemed his hand the best. He
was a cunning old fox. Ihave known
him to go out on comparatively
strong hands, presumably upon read
ing the faces Of his antagonists. He
claimed to be able to read faces pretty
accurately, but stated to me on one
occasion that the only sphinx-face
that defied him at cards was that Of
General Grant. The latter played
occasionally at Fernando Woods
card parties in the Wood mansion,
now occupied by John Chamberlain,
and often at Zach Chandler's house,
and he worried both Wood and
Chandler by his silent but no less
successful poker playing"
Fernando Wood was no slouch at
poker" continued the narrator, "but
he liked to play with interiors, men
he could beat on the strength Of the
game. Occasionally he would run up
against some tyro playing in big luck,
who could draw the horns off billy
goat, so to speak. and fill every time.
That used to exasperate Fernando,
who was usually cool and self
possessed. AS a rule, however,
Fernando generally scooped in the
winnings and many Congressman
and Senator went broke at his table,
albeit he always provided royal
feast for his guests and victims. In
deed, people used to say that the
supper was part of Fernando's lay
out, by which many persons were
attracted and walked into the spiders
parlor."
81 do not think" said another ot
the party, "that there is as much
poker playing nowadays as in times
past. Money was plenty during the
johnson and Grant administrations,
and hence both private and public
gaming flourished. Money is scarce
now, and of course the game is linn
tied, particularly among public men.
Still, more poker playing goes on
privately than is imagined. When
Joe Chaffee, of Colorado, was alive
and habitated at Washington, he
made things lively, but. bless your
soul, he couldn't play poker worth a
cent. He always lost, and the boys
used to divide him out regularly.
There are lots Of suckers among rich
men in public life who are always
worth something to the boys at the
poker table. They win but rarely
and are just the meat for others
+ Why, know of one case, an eastern
Senator, as clever 4 man as evel
lived, kind and. generous, with plenty
of cash. He is sometimes disposed
toward poker, and this weakness il
taken advantage Of by brother Sen.
ator from western State, an adep
at the game, who invariably rucki
him at the card table, borrows hin
money, and makes fun of him behind
his back. This is one OF the bes
paying investments the western Sena
tor has made since he came to Wash
ington, and he has made several"
This little western Senator works
on the Fernando Wood plan, of pre-
ferring to play in a game he can beat
But, like Fernando, he occasionally
rarely, it is true, gets caught. Some
one or two years since he was invited
to dinner party, that subsequently
merged into game Of poker, al
which he had bad luck and lost some
$l25. This loss made him squeal
like pig under the gate, and he was
indiscreet enough to talk about the
matter as if he had been actually
robbed. He said the dinner was ex-
cellent and the wines splendid, but he
couldn't afiore to pay $125 for a disf
OF terrapin and glass OF champagne
This episode was the town talk at the
time.-[K Kansas City Times.
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